Gazprom Export and Linde sign Helium Memorandum of Understanding

Trade News

Paris, France, 9 December 2012– In Paris, Alexander Medvedev, deputy Chairman of the Management Committee of Gazprom JSC and General Director of Gazprom export LLC, and Tom Blades, Member of the Executive Board of Linde AG, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) stipulating cooperation in implementing new helium production projects planned by Gazprom Group concurrently with the development of the Eastern Siberia gas fields.

Pursuant to the Memorandum, Linde intends to act as a strategic buyer of significant volumes of helium from the new production facility in the town of Belogorsk in the vicinity of the city of Blagoveshensk. The plant is due to be commissioned in 2018 in parallel with the start of the flow of natural gas extracted from the Chayandinskoye field along the new gas transportation route "Yakutia – Khabarovsk – Vladivostok". The parties also agreed to explore other opportunities of a more profound cooperation within the framework of new helium production projects in the Russian Far East.

The Chayandinskoye field, together with other resources owned by Gazprom in the East Siberian region, forms one of the largest reservoirs of helium in the world. By using the appropriate facilities the helium production levels will be set to enable balancing of world supplies and demand for decades. The volume of helium produced by Gazprom will replace the volumes produced by the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) system for decades to come, as the BLM system depletes.

"As global demand for helium continues to increase, this cooperation agreement will allow Gazprom to address the market request. It will also contribute to deliver the best possible value from East Siberian potential by using the optimal technologies," Alexander Medvedev said.

"Linde is interested in a long-term cooperative agreement with Gazprom Export to purchase significant volumes of helium produced from this major project, and as a potential partner of Gazprom Group in helium production, marketing, logistics and other technical areas associated with helium," Tom Blades said.

About Gazprom
Gazprom Export – a 100% subsidiary of OAO Gazprom, acts as the export arm of Gazprom for natural gas but also for oil, petroleum products, gas condensate, sulphur, liquefied hydrocarbon gases and other petroleum and petrochemical products. Gazprom Export supplies "blue fuel" to more than 20 countries. Its major partners are companies from Germany, Turkey, Italy, France and Poland. The company carries out marketing of gas in new markets, optimizes export flows, and analyses and forecasts the natural gas market trends. Participates in the development and implementation of Gazprom's gas and energy investment projects in Russia and abroad. In 2011, purchased for Gazprom's portfolio 27.5 billion cubic meters of gas from Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. Gazprom Export is one of the most successful and advanced Russian companies. The size of Gazprom Export’s export earnings largely fills in Russia's budget revenues. In 2011, the volume of natural gas exports to far-abroad countries amounted to 150.0 billion cubic meters.

About The Linde Group
The Linde Group is a world-leading gases and engineering company with around 62,000 employees in more than 100 countries worldwide. In the 2011 financial year, Linde generated revenue of EUR 13.787 bn. The strategy of the Group is geared towards long-term profitable growth and focuses on the expansion of its international business with forward-looking products and services. Linde acts responsibly towards its shareholders, business partners, employees, society and the environment – in every one of its business areas, regions and locations across the globe. The Group is committed to technologies and products that unite the goals of customer value and sustainable development.

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